Jury finds man guilty of drive-by shooting

The shooter could serve life in prison without parole.

YOUNGSTOWN — A jury has found Jonathan L. Clay guilty of aggravated murder with a firearm specification in the June 26 drive-by shooting death of Terrance E. Brown on the city’s East Side.

Clay faces a prison term ranging from 20 years to life without parole on the aggravated murder charge plus a five-year term for the gun specification when he is sentenced at 1:30 p.m. next Wednesday.

The seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated about two hours and 15 minutes before rendering its verdict Tuesday at the end of a five-day trial before Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The prosecution said Clay, 24, of Winona Avenue, fired a shotgun blast from an SUV that hit Brown in the neck and killed him instantly as Brown tried to escape the gunfire by entering his sister’s apartment in the 1400 block of Woodcrest Avenue.

Clay’s cousin, Jason O. Clay, also 24, of Winona Avenue, who the prosecution alleges was the SUV driver, goes on trial before Judge Evans at a later date on charges of complicity to aggravated murder with a gun specification, and he faces the same potential penalties if convicted.

Brown, 27, of South Truesdale Avenue, was the victim of a random shooting, said Martin P. Desmond, assistant county prosecutor.

“This was a wholly innocent guy who was out there minding his own business,” Desmond said.

Jonathan Clay decided to “shoot whoever was out there” because he thought the SUV had been fired upon moments earlier in the same neighborhood, Desmond said.

The Clays were arrested in July in East Liverpool, and the case was investigated by Youngstown and East Liverpool police.

Jonathan Clay’s lawyer, Douglas Taylor, said an appeal will be filed.